The Korean Food Sanitation Act provides that the Commissioner of the Korea Food and Drug Administration shall determine and publicly announce standards for manufacturing, processing, cooking or storing foods or food additives, when necessary for public health (Food Standards Codex).
With this Food Standards Codex, Article 7 of the Korean Food Sanitation Act provides standards for manufacturing, processing, using, cooking and storing foods, food additives, devices, containers and packages, and standards for ingredients. In addition, the Korean Food Sanitation Act provides standards and specifications for 20 food groups, 138 food classes and 480 food types, standards and specifications for devices, containers and packages according to 45 kinds of materials, and testing methods therefor.
The Korean Food Standards Codex was provided based on the Korean Food Sanitation Act established on Jan. 20, 1962 and was first opened in the year 1966 by announcing standards and specifications for alcoholic beverages and soy source.
Since then, the management system of the Korean Food Standards Codex was established in Dec. 23, 1967 by announcing standards for the manufacture, processing and use of soy source and provisions for the ingredients thereof under Decree No. 206 of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. In the year 1976, the Korean Food Sanitation Act was amended while the standards and specifications determined by the decrees of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs were changed to those determined by the notices of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, and in the year 1977, standards and specifications for foods and the like were wholly amended to provide a basis on which the current Korean Food Sanitation Act is based. Since then, the Korean Food Standards Codex was amended several times, and with the launch of the WTO, it was converted to a management system that loosens quality standards while enforcing safety. With the loosening of quality standards, the desire to develop new products has been boosted. In addition, the Korean Food Standards Codex has been continually amended such that it could be harmonized with international standards.
Moreover, the Korean Food Standards Codex includes general provisions, methods for the collection and handling of samples, common standards and specifications for general foods, standards and specifications for each food, recommended microbial standards for foods to be cooked and marketed by food service establishments, provisional standards for marine products, standards and specifications for devices, containers and packages, general testing methods, reagents, sample solutions, standard solutions, standard solution for volumetric analysis, and appenda.
In the Korean Food Standards Codex, sampling methods are described according to the kind of sample (heterogeneous food, sample for microbial analysis, package sample, fishes and shells, etc.).
Among them, the sampling methods for microbial analysis include various sampling methods for liquid samples, semi-solid samples, solid samples, solid surface samples, and powder samples.
In the sampling methods for solid surface samples, a specific area is partitioned on the solid surface, and a sample is collected from the partitioned area and used as a microbial test solution.
For the solid surface sampling as described above, a region having a specific size should be partitioned on the solid surface. In order to partition a region having specific size on the solid surface, the region having a specific size is partitioned on the solid surface using a ruler and a pen, and the partitioned region is sampled. Alternatively, a separately prepared template is attached to the solid surface, and the region partitioned thereby is sampled. In other words, a plurality of partitioned regions having a constant size are sampled to obtain standards.
However, in the conventional sampling methods as described above, tools, such as a ruler, a pen or a template, are used, and thus there are serious problems in that the tools cause instantaneous microbial contamination when they come into contact with the solid surface, and furthermore, result in the error of microbial sampling.
In recent years, in order to overcome the above-described problems, a template sterilized by gamma radiation has been used. This template can minimize contamination caused by a tool used to partition a sampling region on the solid surface.
The above-described sterilized template can minimize the contamination of the solid surface, because it is used after sterilization. However, it is expensive because it is sterilized. Further, it is disposable and non-recyclable, and thus when several regions of the solid surface are to be sampled, a plurality of the templates should be used, resulting in an increase in analysis cost. In addition to these problems, the template should be attached to each region, making the analysis process very complicated.